Recent Articles

Aetna is pulling out of 11 of the 15 states it serves on the Obamacare exchanges. Longtime readers of this column will be unsurprised at the reason: It’s losing substantial amounts of money on its exchange policies. That’s not necessarily the only reason, of course. Companies in heavily regulated industries — and health care is…

Aetna’s decision to pull back from ObamaCare is fueling new questions about the long-term viability of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). When UnitedHealthcare announced in April that it was leaving most ObamaCare marketplaces in 2017, supporters of the law argued against drawing broad conclusions, calling it one company’s decision. But since then two other large…

Canceled health insurance plans, shrinking networks, surging premiums and failed co-ops resulting from President Obama’s 2010 health law are only hiccups compared to Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion. Unlike other major parts of the law, Medicaid expansion is covering more people than intended. This is terrible news for taxpayers, and it will only get worse with the…

Aetna the nation’s fourth-largest health insurer, just decided to stop offering plans on Obamacare’s exchanges in all but four states in 2017. The firm says that it was losing roughly $300 million per year on these policies. And it projected that its losses would only increase, since the share of covered individuals “in need of…

Talk about climate deniers, just how much worse does it need to get before all of the Obamacare defenders are ready to concede this isn’t working. This has been an awful summer for Obamacare. Here are just a few of the headlines: Aetna has been a stalwart of confidence for Obamacare. That confidence took an abrupt…

Increasingly, there are two ObamaCares. There’s the one in coastal and northern areas, where the marketplaces include multiple insurers and plans. And there’s the one in southern and rural areas, where there is often little competition, a situation that can lead to higher premiums. “There’s really two kind of stories that are playing out,” said…

Aetna’s retreat from most ObamaCare marketplaces this week is rippling across rural America, starting with Pinal County in Arizona. The county, which has a population of about 400,000, no longer has any insurers planning to sell coverage through ObamaCare next year. State regulators still have until Aug. 23 to try to lure other companies into…

Last November, when UnitedHealth Group said it expected to post big losses on its Obamacare policies in 2016, rivals such as Anthem and Aetna signaled their Affordable Care Act businesses were doing fine. The Obama administration used that as evidence to refute claims that systemic problems were brewing in its landmark insurance program. Now, there’s…

Insurance giant Aetna’s decision to stop offering much of its individual coverage through the Affordable Care Act is exposing a problem in President Obama’s signature health-care law that could lead to another fraught political battle in Congress. Aetna’s announcement Monday night was the latest sign that large insurers are losing money in the Affordable Care…

Donald Trump and other Republicans Tuesday cast a decision by a major insurer to sharply cut back participation in Affordable Care Act exchanges as evidence that the new system is collapsing and should be replaced. Democrats continued to defend the law as much better than the old system, but said the news that Aetna Inc. will withdraw from 11 of…